Tag attachment device



Feb. 23, 1954 H. L. SPAULDING ET AL 2,669,795

TAG ATTACHMENT DEVICE Filed Feb. 21, 1951 INVENTORS HARRY 'L. SPAULDING WlLUAM E. GLADSTONEJR.

Mm; MARKOVICH ,/M, w 'fi ATTORNEYS Patented Feb. 23, 1954 TAG ATTACHMENT DEVICE Harry L. S'paulding, William E. Gladstone, Jr

and. Mike Markovich, Washington, D.,

ApplicatiomFebruaryZl, 1951, Serial No. 2121097 2 Claims.

This invention relates to devices forattaching; tag strings to clothing: and the like; and particularly to such devices. which do not; require auxiliary insertion members but are" complete in. themselves.

Ready' to; wear clothing and. like articles are displayed in wholesale or retail stores with at? tached: tags on which are printed or marked the. price, quality, serial. number and other data. The attachment of such tags is usuallymade by unskilled labor at the store and, where buttons, button holes: or other'parts of the article are not available or desirable for tag attachment,-. it is: customary to: insert the tag string end through the fabric, double the tag back through the loop: at the inserted string end. and. pulluntil the loop is: tight with the fabric.

At first special needles. were employed for in sorting. the. knotted. tag string; ends through the fabric; and this method is used in many places, today. A recent developmenthas been toprovide the tag string end with small metal crossbars like. those shown in Flood Patent 2,063,135, and thread the ta string end into the fabricby a special hollow headed needle. the labor of attaching the tag string to a needle passing the needle' through the fabric and then detaching the needleare time consuming; Where many tags must be attached every day, the time factor is an important expense item; Also needles are lost or stolen and must be re placed.

Thepresent invention contemplates providing. a tag string with. a device which, functions; without an auxiliary needle to pass the end of the tag string through the fabric; and is convertible to then provide a small cross bar equivalent to'the cross bar of the above-mentioned Flood. patent at the: end of the tag string. available after insertion for looping. into. the tag. string. For some tag attachment purposes it is, desirable to eliminate this cross bar altogether, which is not possible in the patented tag above mentioned, and in some embodiments of the invention the device can be wholly'removecl from the tag string after penetrating the fabric.

It has been proposed as in Flood Patent 2,152,349 to secure the tag; string tosmall metal retainer bars having at least one sharp end for penetrating the. fabric but these retainer bars tion to provide a tag attachment device which.

These methods requiring.

Ill

operates like; a needle to, penetrate fabric but which may then be converted to a bluntwretainen bar or even entirely detached from the tag string"...

Itis a further object of the invention to pravide: a tag: attachment; pin, which is: made ofpa plastic material that is hard and relatively brit,---

tie: at, normal room temperatures but which may be. heat softened for fastening a tag; string: to it..

A further obj ect of. theinvention is to provide.

a tag attachment pin having a pointed. end; and a tag. string secured remote from the pointed end and. having a weakened portion. to permit, con,- version into. a short retainer bar andfor' to. do tach the pin from the: string.

Furth r objects of the invention will. present! 1y appear asv the description proceeds in. conne'o ticn with. the appended claims and. the" annexed drawingswherein;

Figure 1, is: an. elevational view illustrating a tag having; an attachment device of. the invention of its stringg;

Figure 1A illustrates the device of Figure I after penetration into a fabric and conversion to: a retainer bar Figure 2 illustrates a further embodiment hav ing a. definite weakened section. in the pin.

Figure 3 illustrates; a further embodiment whereina it, is: possible to. separate the. tag string; entirely from; the pin after passing the pin through a fabric;

Figure 4 illustrates a, further embodiment hav ing a difierent. manner of. attachment: of: the tag; string;

Figure 5: illustrates a, three section pin;

Figure 6 illustrates a further embodiment wherein the string, ends: will remain: secured to" gether even when the pin, is, broken. at the adjacentweakened; portion;

Figure '7 illustrates a iurther embodiment 017;.

vice of the invention comprises a, pin H about. a one and one-half inches long, preferably madelof.

a hard relatively brittle non-metallie plastic such as cellulose acetate, methyl acrylate,. vinyl resim.

nylon or the like. These plastics; are relatively light and inexpensive; smooth surfaced, are easily formed to shape and; readilyprovidedl with. weakened regions for a purpose to appear and: may be made: in any color which attractivefor display.

The. preferred. material is one or thega-bove or other well. known sol-called thermo-plastica aesares which is relatively hard and brittle at ambient temperatures but which may be softened temporarily as by a flame or hot iron to permit a portion of the tag string to be imbedded in it without scorching the string.

The pin should be hard enough to retain its point and remain sufficiently stiff under all operating conditions as to be resistant to objectionable bending, but it should be capable of being readily snapped when "the operator so desires.

Pins of metal, wood or the like cannot satisfy these requirements.

Pin II has any suitable cross-section and comprises a pointed portion I 2 and a body portion I 3 to which the tag string is attached. While the body portion may be of constant diameter and only the portion I2 pointed as illustrated, it is within the scope of the invention to make the whole or any part of pin H tapered, the main requisite being a point at it.

As illustrated in Figure l, the tag string 45 which has been passed. through the tag It has its free ends attached side by side to body it of the pin. As above explained this is preferably done by heat softening the thermo-plastic material of the pin and while soft pressing in the tag ends so that they are anchored to the pin when the material hardens. Thus with one operation We secure the ends of the string together and attach the string to the pin.

In use the pin H is pushed with point i foremost into the fabric F of Figure 1A. and entirely through the fabric, and after being drawn through the fabric like a needle it is snapped to detach the portion l2 and leave the tag string 1 with body It as a cross bar which serves the same purpose as the cross bars of the above mentioned Flood patents. However, bar [3 of the invention is blunt at both ends and did not require special separate needle insertion so that it provides a decided improvement over the Flood devices.

Many of the available plastics will usually snap with a clean break as indicated at Figure 1A. However, to insure a perfectly clean break every time and assure a definite size of bar [3, the body and point portions of the pin are preferably separated by a weakened region I1 as in Figure 2 that may be readily provided simply by providing a shallow annular cut around the pin at that point. This cut is shown in exaggerated size in Figure 2, and in practice it may be so thin as to be almost invisible.

The function of weakened region it is to enable the pin to be readily snapped at a definite point with a clean fiat transverse break, but it is strong enough to permit insertion of the pin point foremost through a fabric'without objectionable bending or breaking. The weakened region may take any equivalent structure embodiment without departing from the spirit of the invention.

In the form of the invention shown in Figure 3 the tag string I8 is first knotted to provide a closed loop and the loop passes around a groove [9 in the periphery of the pin, the string being imbedded at least partly in the thermo-plastic pin material or, where the material may not be thermo-plastic, being anchored in the groove by a suitable adhesive. In this embodiment, after the pin has passed through the fabric, it may be entirely separated from the tag string loop by snapping the pin at the weakened section provided by groove 49. This is of value in tagging felt hats and other ready to wear articles. the

4 tag being merely passed through the loop and drawn tight.

In the embodiment of Figure 4, the looped string l8 may be clamped to the pin 2| by cutting and bending out an integral sliver 22 for insertion of the string loop, and then welding the thermo-plastic sliver back to the pin body by heat and pressure to thereby imbed and anchor the string to pin 2!. A. weakened section 23 is here provided for snapping oil the point when desired.

In Figure5, the string loop 24 passes through a hole 25 in the pin 26 and two weakened regions 2'! and 28 are provided for snapping off different lengths of the pin for certain purposes. Longitudinal grooves 29 running between the hole 25 and the end of the pin enable the string to lie within the cross section of the pin when the latter is passed through the fabric. In this embodiment the string ends are anchored to the ta as illustrated.

The embodiment of Figure 6 is generally like that of Figure 1 except that before attachment to the pin the ends of string l5 are imbedded in a bead 3! of some plastic material different from the pin, and a grooved weakened section 32 is provided in the pin at the point of attachment of the string. Thus in this embodiment, the string ends may be secured together and attached to the pin in a single operation, and the advantage of the pin removal feature of Figure 3 is also obtained because on snapping this pin at 32 the string ends will remain bound together by head 3| after separation from the Figure 7 illustrates a form of the invention for special purposes wherein the thermo-plastic tapered pin 33 is formed with a small rounded point 35 that will penetrate most woven and other fabrics readily. The tag string [5 is imbedded in the pin as in Figure 1, and this pin serves certain purposes where a longer pin is not needed.

Referring to Figure 8 the tag string is attached to the pin in such a manner that as the pin passes through the fabric only one thickness of thread at a time is disposed between the pin periphery and the fabric. To accomplish this, a surface out or slot indicated at 35 is made in the body of pin 36 at an angle to the longitudinal axis of the pin. The tag string 37 is laid in the slot and heat sealed to the pin. Thus it will be seen that as the pin passes through the fabric the thread portion 38 will pass through the fabric before the thread portion 39 enters the hole in the fabric.

Any of these string attachments to the pin body may be substituted one for the other in any of the pins of the invention, and the feature of providing weakened regions at diiferent places in the pin may be used in any pin of the invention singly or in any combination.

The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiment is therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein. Y

What is claimed and desired to be secured by United States Letters Patent is:

1. An attachment device for a tag assembly having a string loop, comprising a slender pin having a body and a pointed end for insertion through a fabric, means for attaching a portion of said string loop to the pin body at a point intermediate the ends of said pin, and a weakened region in the pin at said string attachment point strong enough to permit insertion of the pin through the fabric without breaking whereby, after insertion through a fabric said pin may be turned transversely to retain said string loop in the fabric or said pin may be snapped at said weakened region to release the string loop.

2. In a tag assembly, a pin having a pointed end portion and a body portion adapted to be passed through a fabric, a tag string loop affixed to said body portion at point intermediate the ends of said pin and a weakened section in said pin at the point at which the loop is attached thereto for permitting snapping of the pin into longitudinal sections and entirely separating the sections from the string loop whereby, after insertion through a fabric said pin may be turned transversely to retain said string loop in the fabric or said pin may be snapped at said weakened region to release the string loop.

HARRY L. SPAULDING.

WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE, JR.

MIKE MARKOVICH.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,867,330 Schwartzman July 12, 1932 2,152,349 Flood Mar. 28, 1939 2,187,039 Kohler Jan. 16, 1940 2,271,477 Davis Jan. 27, 1942 2,433,949 Heimlich Jan. 6, 1948 

